Seven Card Stud Hi Lo Strategy

A good sound Seven Card Stud Hi Lo Strategy requires playing good starting hands along with a good amount of concentration and being aware of the cards that have been dealt to your opponents. If you can do these three things - play good starting hands, concentrate, be aware - then you should be able to develop into a good Seven Card Stud Hi Lo player. I do recommend giving Seven Card Stud a try and get familiar with that game before moving on to the Hi Lo version. The major difference between Seven Card Stud Hi Lo and Seven Card Stud is that the Hi Lo version splits the pot between the best Hi hand and the Best Low hand. The best low hand can not contain any card higher than an eight.

Starting Hands
The most important decision you will make at the table will be deciding what starting hands to play. Good poker players are selective about the starting hands that they will play.  Most new players tend to play far too many hands and end up losing money.

As part of my recommended Seven Card Stud Hi Lo Strategy you will base your decision to play the hand only after looking at your starting hand and after looking at your opponents up cards.

If you notice that cards that are important to your hand have already been dealt to your opponents you may want to consider folding and saving yourself money.

Ok, now it is time to move on to specific starting hands.

The best starting hand that you will ever be able to start out with is an Ace, two and three all of the same suit. Low suited cards that are close to one another gives you the best chance at getting the high and low hand in Seven Card Stud by hitting a straight flush. Low cards that are connected or near connected but not suited (unsuited) gives you a possibility of a straight.

These are the cards that will give you the best opportunity to 'scoop' the pot meaning that you win both the high and low hand and win the entire pot.

Three Aces, Kings, and Queens give you a good opportunity to win half the pot. Additional strong hands to win the high hand include high cards that are suited and either connected or near connected.

Middle sets - hands that contain three of a kind of middle cards (9's, 8's 7's) can be playable depending on what cards your opponents are showing and what you think that they might have. Don't play these hands to just stay in the game if you think you are likely beaten.  Save your money for the next hand and fold.

When you feel that you have little chance to win you are always better off folding and saving your money. Poker players that win money are the ones who know when to fold and save money. The key to winning money in poker is to minimize the amount of money on any hand that you lose and to maximize the amount of money that you win.

Being aware of what cards the other players have been dealt and what they are doing (betting, raising, calling) is very important when playing Seven-Card Stud. You need to pay attention and see if cards that are important to your hand have been dealt. Also, see if any of the other players have a pair showing or if it looks like they may be on a flush or straight draw.

After every round you must try to figure out what each player has, did the last card that they receive help them, what are the cards that will improve your hand, is your hand good enough to win or what is the likelihood that you can make a hand that will win.

After the final card is dealt its time to figure out what your opponent has relative to your hand. Look at their up cards and see what the best possible hand that they could have is. If you are sure that you are beat fold.  If not then you can at least call the final bet especially if there is only one player left in the hand. At this point you would only be risking one big bet for the chance to win at least half the pot. But do be careful when chasing half the pot because oftentimes the risk may not be worth it to turn a small profit.

Seven Card Stud Hi Lo takes a lot of concentration but with a little practice you can be a winning player.